The number of people using the Internet and the World Wide Web (the Web) has increased substantially in recent years. Not surprisingly, this increase has been accompanied by growth in electronic transactions in goods and services on the Web dubbed "Electronic Commerce." While many efficiencies are achieved by exploiting this new medium, Electronic Commerce presents new complications for both customers and the firms supplying the goods and/or services.
Customers, for example, worry about the security and privacy of the transactions and are therefore hesitant to transmit payment information over the Internet. Firms, on the other hand, have difficulty verifying facts such as identity, age, and credit worthiness of customers. The customary methods of identification verification, available in face-to-face transactions, are not suitable for electronic transactions.
Currently, in the context of providing a remote service such as providing user accounts for Internet and Web access, for example, there is no simple solution for verifying information provided by a prospective user. Customers activating user accounts may provide inaccurate information with respect to their name, age, gender, billing information, etc. Typically, commercial Internet access providers such as WebTV Networks, Inc., America Online.TM., CompuServe.TM. or the like activate user accounts upon being provided with a credit card number during an initial access to the service. This puts the provider at risk of losing the expected revenue from this user should the person providing the credit card number be a minor or someone without authority to use the card.
Based on the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a method and apparatus for determination and verification of user data. Specifically, it is desirable to acquire information about the user with reference to reliable resources and/or based upon the user's online activities.